Bill The Bee winning at Benalla (Image: Racing Photos)
Mike Moroney doesn't have a runner in Sunday's Jericho Cup, but he plans to give his own salute to the race and to the occasion it is named after at The Valley on Saturday.
The second running of the $300,000 Jericho Cup over 4600 metres will be conducted at Warrnambool, but a full 24 hours before the race designed to honour servicemen and women from Australia's Light Horse regiment in World War I, Moroney and a group of owners will pay their own respects.
They do so when their galloper Bill The Bee tackles the Box Hill Handicap over 1500m.
Bill The Bee is short for Bill The Bastard, who is renowned as Australia's greatest-ever warhorse after showing great endurance and courage in a series of battles in the Middle East. He also won a race they called the first Jericho Cup over three miles in the desert sand before a battle against the Turks.
"Rupert (Legh, part-owner) has always been a fan of Bill The Bastard and the book and he's had a bit to do with the guy who started the Jericho Cup (Bill Gibbins)," Moroney explained on Friday.
Bill The Bee, however, is unlikely to run out distances such as the 4600m of Sunday's Jericho Cup as Moroney thinks a third of that distance might be his best in time.
Bill The Bee was purchased initially as a weanling for $85,000 and then resold the following year as a yearling to Moroney's brother Paul for $160,000. In nine starts to date, he has won back more than $40,000 but hopes are high he can accelerate his earning capacity this campaign.
"He's a nice, tough horse and he's got some nice ability," Moroney said. "He's taken until now to really mature so we expect a reasonable campaign from him.
"He's got speed on the dam's side and he's quite a powerful horse. A big, strong sort of horse and so we're not really sure he'll get a trip."
Moroney is happy his Bill The Bee is a different-looking horse to the one from 100 years ago, but hopes he shares some of the original Bill's make-up.
"He's quite a good-looking horse and Bill The Bastard, by all accounts, was pretty average looking, but a horse with an incredibly big heart," he said.